1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing device and, more particularly, to a printing device, which sends notification of its status.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many of today's offices, personal computers are connected to a network and to peripheral devices such as printers, which are shared by multiple computers through the network. In such a networked environment, it is often difficult for a user, including an administrator such as a system manager, to know the status of the peripheral device at any given time, because the user is not necessarily near the peripheral device at all times.
In order to solve the above-described problem, a printer that allows the user to assess the status of the printer, even when the user is not physically next to the printer itself, has been proposed. This printer notifies the user of errors, such as when the printer cover is open or when the printer is jammed, by sending a message to the user via e-mail or the like (see: JP-A No. 6-320845).
However, when a user other than the system manager changes the settings on the printer, either deliberately or unintentionally, the system manager is not notified of the changes. When the changes are the source of system trouble, the system manager must first surmise that a user has changed the settings, and then based on the current settings, speculate what kind of changes were made thereto. Accordingly, solving such problems requires a lot of experience and man-hours.